Climate Challenge Fund grants available for churches.

Applications for Climate Challenge Fund (CCF) grants up to £150,000 per year are invited now and application deadlines for the next three grant panels in 2013 and 2014 are available on the Climate Challenge Fund website.

Additional support to help disadvantaged communities and ethnic minority communities to get their CCF applications off the ground is available through Development grants of £750. Projects led by young people to reduce the carbon footprint of their community are also supported; the Junior Climate Challenge Fund (JCCF) offers young people £750 Development grants to develop a full JCCF grant application where they could secure funding of up to £150,000 per year.

Since 2008 CCF grants have provided over £46 million in funding for 563 projects run by Scottish community groups. These groups have worked with their communities to run projects that have reduced their carbon footprint, helping to tackle climate change as well as making community improvements and creating employment and training opportunities. These projects include:

• Making community owned buildings more energy efficient   
• Supporting households to  become more energy efficient
• Creating food growing spaces  
• Implementing active travel and lower carbon transport projects 

All groups applying for CCF funding can count on support from a Development Officer at Keep Scotland Beautiful who manage the fund on behalf of the Scottish Government.  

For further advice and information please contact Keep Scotland Beautiful. Keep Scotland Beautiful is the independent charity which campaigns, acts and educates on a range of local, national and global environmental issues which affect people’s quality of life.  It is committed to making Scotland clean and green, today and tomorrow.

How the Eco-Congregation Award plaques are made.

During a recent visit of the CTBI Environmental Issues Network to the Greyfriars Community Project in Edinburgh we had the chance to see how our award plaques are made. Greyfriars runs a project called GROW (Greyfriars Recycling of Wood) which turns disused church pews into furniture and other wooden items. The workkshop trains unemployed people in woodworking skills.

Here are some photos of the workshop:

 Shop window showing some of the smaller items available to buy.

The workshop.

Display case shopwing some of the smaller work they undertake.

Tommy Steele explaining how the plaques are made.

Some pews are cut down and resold as furniture.

Could this be your award plaque?

Sister Ketherine Brennan of Eco-Congregation ireland with the plaques.

Video – How is Scotland’s climate changing and what should we do to adapt?

 Take a look at this film from Adaptation Scotland to learn more about the changes in climate that we are experiencing and the responses of different organisations, businesses and communities:

You can also see short stories from projects around Scotland here.

Scotland misses its climate change targets.

Today the Scottish government has published Scottish greenhouse gas emissions for 2011.  They show a significant reduction on 2010 but just miss the emissions reductions target set under the Scottish Climate Change Act.
 
You can find a confident press release from the Scottish government here:   http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2013/06/climatechangestats07062013
 
And a critical press release from Stop Climate Chaos here: http://www.stopclimatechaos.org/news/2013/06/07/scotland-misses-second-climate-target
 
There is a last minute opportunity to respond to the Scottish government , who are still considering future plans and policies to reduce emissions in years to come.  To find out how to do this follow this link:

http://www.stopclimatechaos.org/urgent-action-plans-tackle-climate-change-scotland

Recycle Week, 17 – 23 June 2013

Recycle Week is a celebration of everything about recycling – the how’s, why’s and where’s. Now in its third year in Scotland, it is organised by Zero Waste Scotland under the Recycle for Scotland brand. It aims to encourage people to recycle more things more often by thanking them for their efforts and showing what more can be done. If you register your church you gain access to online downloadable materials you can use for events which encourages waste minimisation and recycling.

Click on this link to find out how you can get involved.

Energy Saving Trust energy surveys no longer available to churches.

This came in today from the Energy Saving Trust. It appears to mean that the free energy efficiency survey  used by many churches is no longer available. We will be looking into this.

Community buildings and small businesses – ‘Resource Efficient Scotland’

We’re getting a few enquiries from village halls and community buildings looking for advice on energy saving in their building, and asking for the Energy Saving Trust’s Building Energy Review.
At the start of April, our service for non-domestic buildings changed, with the introduction of Resource Efficient Scotland.
The Review is no longer available – in general – to organisations with a small energy spend, so this affects small businesses and most community buildings such as churches and village halls.